![wind-turbine[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wind-turbine1.jpg?quality=83)
The Financial Times reports that the USA is experiencing the weakest wind speeds for 40 years, which is having a dramatic impact on wind energy businesses.
According to the FT (subscription may be required);
US clean energy suffers from lack of wind
A lack of wind is making the US clean energy sector sweat, with consequences for investors from yield-hungry pensioners to Goldman Sachs.
Electricity generated by US wind farms fell 6 per cent in the first half of the year even as the nation expanded wind generation capacity by 9 per cent, Energy Information Administration records show.
The reason was some of the softest air currents in 40 years, cutting power sales from wind farms to utilities. The feeble breezes come as the White House is promoting renewable energy, including wind, as part of its Clean Power Plan to counter greenhouse gas emissions.
“We never anticipated a drop-off in the wind resource as we have witnessed over the past six months,” David Crane, chief executive of power producer NRG Energy, told analysts last month.
Read more: http://on.ft.com/1N73bQP
In my opinion this once again demonstrates how useless wind power is, as an energy solution for an economy which requires a reliable, biddable supply of electricity.
It might one day be possible to create an affordable energy storage solution which can provide economical backup for the entire electricity grid for a few hours, or even a few days. But an energy storage solution which can hold enough energy to supplement the entire country’s energy needs for months, or even years, on one charge, is utterly implausible.
If this becomes a trend, someone will blame it on CO2.
Was not the whole point of wind power to harness the extreme weather wrought by CAGW?
The graph below further illustrates the lack of wind out west how the EIA data for calculating levelized cost of electricity is distorted.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=22452
This graph clearly shows that the average monthly or yearly capacity factor is not 35% which EIA use for their levelized electricity calculations and comparisons for wind turbines vs conventional options like coal and nuclear . Using the 35% factor instead of 20- 25% lowers the cost per kwh and makes it look more competitive when in fact it may not be so.
I still cannot fathom why Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are being ignored.
H2 from electricity plus CO2 to make methane, then store it underground = technically plausible year scale energy storage.
Economically ludicrous, though.
A wind shortage! There was plenty of that during the much warmer 1930’s hot weather cycle.
Of course, when we descend into the sort of weather we had during the Little Ice Age 1970’s, there will be lots and lots and lots of wind at least for those of us living east of the Mississippi.
California has lots of hot air, it is blowing on TV. Can’t harvest that!
You can store energy to supply the country for long periods of time. It’s called the strategic reserve.
The CEO of a major wind power utility never anticipated that winds could be changeable?
If idiocy was a professional sport, this guy would be in the major leagues.
Looks like the wind industry blew it.
…We never anticipated a drop-off in the wind resource as we have witnessed over the past six months…
I’ll bet that independent experts covered that possibility – but the wind company would have been stupid to have ‘anticipated that drop-off’ to the extent of putting it in their projections – after all, their grants were dependent on projections that they could provide 100% of the USA’s energy at some point…
Cause and Effect. As the higher latitudes become warmer the polar\equatorial delta T – hence delta P decreases. Since the forces driving air masses decrease, then it logically follows that wind driven phenomenon will decrease. Why are so so-called climatologist surprised when observations confirm exactly such an effect occurring?
Unfortunately, for us all – cooling will reverse this effect and weather will become more severe. We will be completely confounded due to the misdirection and fraaud, aiming to the repressive policies hoped for, in Paris. Resistance must defeat this coup. GK
OMG…..the wind changes speed! The horror! And the sun comes up in the east. How do these clowns keep getting away with calling themselves “Scientists”?
Headline: “Global Warming Causing Gentler Wind – Kite Manufacturing Jobs Threatened”
Once again the claim that batteries can save unreliable power generators : batteries STORE ENERGY, THEY CAN’T MAKE ENERGY. Where is the power coming from to charge those batteries? When they are depleted and require recharging, you can’t count on the wind to both power the grid and recharge the batteries.
“The Financial Times reports that the USA is experiencing the weakest wind speeds for 40 years, …”
What can I say? Seven years of Obama has taken the wind out of our sails.
Enjoy
http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-03-29
http://earth.nullschool.net/
There is an earth wind map and yes, the winds this fall are definitely less than normal. Not the only hurricant-type rotation in the Atlantic Ocean west of Africa. Antarctica has high winds, with a tad of this pushing on England which is having a very cold early fall.
As always, what are they referring to when they say “windmill capacity” ? Are they talking nameplate capacity, which is meaningless , but usually used by wind proponents to exaggerate the amount of power their windmills can produce (by 200%), or are they talking some estimated average actual power production? Which, as can be seen here, can also be very optimisitic.
They’d be whining even if the wind were stronger than usual; too many windmills would be shut down to avoid damage. The wind, like Goldilocks’ porridge, has to be ‘just right’.
Don’t worry. Once Trump’s elected we’ll have all the wind we’ll need.
blockquote>We never anticipated – David Crane
Says it all about “Renewables”
If you look here http://www.caiso.com/Pages/TodaysOutlook.aspx and download the wind history, you will see how volatile wind production actually is.
US “clean energy” suffers from a lot of things, but mainly affordability and usefulness. Now with a lack of wind, mother nature is just kicking them while they are down. Ma Nature can be cruel.
There was another article in WUWT that mentioned (quite rightly in my view) that the Earth’s atmosphere has a finite amount of energy. If a wind farm then removes some of this energy to turn the blades and generate electricity, then there will be less energy downwind and any wind turbines there will run more slowly. Could this be part of the problem?
“In my opinion this once again demonstrates how useless wind power is, as an energy solution for an economy which requires a reliable, biddable supply of electricity”.
Totally agree with you Eric, I have said many times that the developed world is totally dependent on computers and hours or even minutes with no power will destroy Western economies. Forget CO2,, the major worry is a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun which will destroy the world’s computers.
Wind turbines are economic parasites, environmental killers, and monstrous eyesores.